Ruby on Rails chases simplicity in programming

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Productivity writing assembler?

Yes, you can do things in handmade assembler that languages don't because compilers have very specific code generators that do not give you every permutation and combination of assembler instructions.

Of course, every program must eventually run as a sequence of machine instructions. So there is a temptation to adulate assembler as the "true" essence of programming. But the romance truly wears off quickly.

I started writing assembler on an IBM system, then Data General 16-bit and 32-bit processors, then for Motorola 88Ks, then for SUN boxes, then for Power PCs. Even if you write a brilliant, perfect program for one platform, you need to learn the assmembly language for a new CPU and start all over again. Talk about lack of portability.

Maintenance of an assembly language program is a nightmare. The DG assemblers were all written is assembly, and if it weren't for the comments augmenting the code, it would take a person a long, long time (maybe never) to figure out what page after page after page of machine instructions is actually doing.

And besides, there are tricks you can play in assembler that can lead maintainers far astray.
Like making data look like instructions - a nonsensical, seemingly random sequence of instructions. So who wants to make sure there is never a branch to those instructions? And assembler has no clues as to such things as volatile values. If one decides to optimize an assembly program for instruction scheduling, you can break critical portions of code by moving loads and stores out of the critical range. The list goes on.

Extolling assembly language is kind of like extolling the virtues of elementary chemistry. One could probably build a better app by meticulously composing an assembly language program, but a person could also use carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorous, etc., to build more attractive and smarter spouse.

Posted by: cgraham_z   Posted on: 11/03/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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